Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hey guys,

I'm finally updating my computer (from C2D to i5 4670k) so I'll be able to finish this game without the lag and crashing!

I know there's been a LOT of discussion in this thread and I am doing my research, but can anyone get me caught up on what the best Dolphin build is for this game, and what settings are essential?

In the 3.X builds, I remember having things like VBeam emulation turned on to be almost a requirement, for example. With my C2D, using DirectX 9 and Xsound were my best combinations, are there any recommendations for those using the i5/i7 processers?

With that i5 at default settings you're good with stable. No worries.

(02-10-2014, 10:40 PM)Gundark Wrote: [ -> ]@Max777, for your motherboard the best option would be fx6300 overclocked to 4.5GHz. On that speed it should match i5 2500k on stock. Piledriver is decent performer compared to your Bulldozer.

Thanks!
I went for this option and I can confirm that an overclocked amd fx 6300 is more than enough for the pal version.
At least in my case, at 4.3Ghz (1.43v) and 4.4Ghz (1.46v) I make around 25-32 fps which are what it is needed.
4.5Ghz needs a little too much voltage for my tastes (1.46v+).

I guess that if I wanted to play the ntsc version I would still experience some problems, but for my purposes this is ok.

So,

(I'm not very good at greetings and whatnot... So let's get to the point.)
I've been playing this game for a couple dozen hours now, and time to time I'd get random slowdowns from constant 30 FPS to about 20-ish. Playing at 1080p, with various enhancements, I just dismissed it as a normal slowdown, possibly caused by larger areas or many special effects (e.g. glowing trees in Satorl).

However, when I got to Alcamoth, the slowdown happened while I was in the room where the party stays (and is imprisoned at first), which I found really strange seeing as it's really a small area with a low-detail backdrop. That made me investigate what was up, and I realized that it was not dropping to 20-ish FPS - it was dropping to a consistent20 FPS.

The issue seems to lie with the frame limit. It randomly just decides to run the game at 20 FPS. I had been playing on Auto at first, but changing it to Audio, and trying various combinationg with or without "limit by FPS", doesn't really fix the problem. Well, limiting the game to 30 FPS manually does, but causes horrible audio stutter. So far the most stable option for me seems to be Audio using Limit by FPS, but even that simply postpones the problem.

For some reason, however, it does seem to like certain areas better than others... Like, the "hotel room" at Alcamoth and Satorl Marsh are prone to slowdown, while Makna Forest isn't. This is really confusing me.

Once the slowdown occurs, changing the framelimit to something and then back to Audio usually fixes it. I'm using HLE, and OpenGL if it matters; normally I can play the game at consistent 30 FPS. I don't think my other settings are really relevant, but I'll post them if needed. Any suggestions?

Quote:However, when I got to Alcamoth, the slowdown happened while I was in the room where the party stays (and is imprisoned at first), which I found really strange seeing as it's really a small area with a low-detail backdrop.

Huh... this is the complete opposite: it's one of the places where you can see the most details in the game. The view of the rest of Alcamoth is not pre-rendered, it's all realtime rendered even at very long distance. Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/PjbwFcq.jpg and from another view (with free look): http://i.imgur.com/sJu3Bnm.jpg If you look carefully you can see the 3 characters of my party in the room far far away.

You basically render the whole area from there, excluding NPC characters.

(02-17-2014, 12:57 PM)delroth Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:However, when I got to Alcamoth, the slowdown happened while I was in the room where the party stays (and is imprisoned at first), which I found really strange seeing as it's really a small area with a low-detail backdrop.

Huh... this is the complete opposite: it's one of the places where you can see the most details in the game. The view of the rest of Alcamoth is not pre-rendered, it's all realtime rendered even at very long distance. Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/PjbwFcq.jpg and from another view (with free look): http://i.imgur.com/sJu3Bnm.jpg If you look carefully you can see the 3 characters of my party in the room far far away.

You basically render the whole area from there, excluding NPC characters.

Oh ok. Well the important part is that I didn't think so, and that made me realize that it was a framelimit problem.

But, once again, it seems to get locked at 20 FPS, while slowdowns due to lag are usually pretty chaotic. And without the problem, everything plays at 30 FPS consistently, with no drops (29 FPS for one second doesn't count as a drop), even in the room up there and everything.

Though, what you said makes me think that the areas prone to the problem are all more or less intensive areas... Which may have some significance.

on a similar note to all the posts here, am i outta luck too with my core i3 3.10 ghz, 8gb of ram and a nvidia gtx 650 OC power edition? im running crysis 3 at full spec here, however i also remember this game running a bit smoother on earlier builds of dolphin - as well as fatal frame 4- so it begs the question is dolphin being optimized for higher end PCs only? and is there any chance to play xenoblade with my current setup or do i need a i5 or a i7?

Right-click the game -> Properties -> Tick "Vbeam Speed Hack"

I really don't see why people keep recommending that. >_< Does that provide any benefit in Xenoblade Chronicles?

For more FPS , obviously ! If i not use it , Xenoblade will not be playable on my laptop
Btw , PAL version = 25FPS , NTSC version = 30FPS . PAL is usually easier to achieve full speed than NTSC (make sure PAL60 option is disabled)
With Vbeam on , Xenoblade run full speed most of the time (latest Dolphin ofc) at 2.5x Internal Res (1600x1320) , no AA , 16xAF . The game run extremely well on latest Dolphin